The use of magnetic wheels to pick up metallic scrap along railroad beds is well known. When disassembling a rail for replacement, several small metallic articles including spikes, tie plates, and anchors are removed and laid upon the railroad bed. Since it is desirable to clear the railroad bed of such metallic articles and re-use such articles, various magnetic wheel constructions for picking up these metallic articles have been developed previously. For example, Holley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,152 discloses a railroad scrap pick-up machine having a magnetic wheel device that is useable with a rail-mounted vehicle for picking up scrap articles such as tie plates and rail spikes on the railroad bed.
New motor vehicles such as cars, light trucks, vans, etc., as well as a variety of other goods, are commonly transported on railroad cars from manufacturing plants to various destinations. Motor vehicles are usually transported in multi-level auto rack railroad freight cars. These multi-level rail cars usually have openings and gaps in their side wall screens and end doors which permit entrance of contaminants such as fine metallic grit or dust particles coming off the railroad bed during transit. Under the right conditions of temperature and humidity, these contaminants become airborne from the railroad bed, settle on the transported motor vehicles and then bloom into rust and damage the horizontal painted surfaces of the motor vehicles being transported. For example, iron filings are produced by rail grinder trains which are employed on railroads to grind the rail thereby extending rail life, however, leaving iron filings on the rail bed. When a train travels along the rail bed, these iron filings or other metallic particles are blown into the surrounding air and can enter the rail car via the end doors or side wall screens, causing rust damage on the transported motor vehicles, even after the vehicles have been deramped and set out on lots awaiting distribution. This problem has existed for many years and motor vehicle manufacturers who ship on the railroad lines want to prevent this problem. The increased activity of rail grinding by railroad companies has served to aggravate this problem.
Thus, minimizing the intrusion of contaminants such as metallic grit and dust particles into a rail car is important in order to prevent or reduce damage to motor vehicles and other goods being transported. The present invention helps to alleviate the above contamination problem as discussed in greater detail below.